Conventional practice for measuring the consistency or viscosity of a material requires taking a sample of the material. The sample is then analyzed in one of two ways. For one, the sample may be taken into a lab and tested on a bench top instrument to provide the measurement. Alternately, the sample is placed inside a portable instrument that provides a measurement by spreading or deforming the material across a calibrated plate. Bench top equipment may test the sample for consistency by penetrating the sample with a specially formed tip. Either the depth of penetration is measured after applying a set force or impact, or the force is measured that is required to probe into the material a set distance.
Conventional practice requires removal of the product to be tested from its original environment. Since the consistency of most products are temperature dependant this practice can result in erroneous readings even if tested on laboratory equipment since the temperature of the product may have changed during the testing or while being transported from one location to another.
It would therefore be desirable to have a portable apparatus which allows for testing of the product in its current location. This simplifies the number of steps required to test a product and hence the time required. It would also be desirable if the apparatus could allow measurements to be taken in the product's original environment without requiring a sample to be taken. It would further be desirable if the apparatus could be handheld with electronic sensors, display, and memory so that measurements could be saved and transferred to a computer for analysis and archiving.
Embodiments of the present invention provide such an apparatus. These and other advantages of the invention, as well as additional inventive features, will be apparent from the description of the invention provided herein.